An affordable option for building a cheap home library, 20th-century hardcover publishers book series included reprints of classics and publisher’s back catalog titles as well as newly commissioned titles. A few series dominated, such as Everyman’s Library and the Modern Library, but there are many others. These pages document the diversity of 20th-century reprint book series. Click on a series below for more information about the series.

Swan Library

Longmans, Green & Company’s Swan Library series was published between 1931 and 1940, issuing a total of 35 numbered books (including two double-volume titles). The series consisted of literary titles, history, essays, collections, biography and memoir, most, seemingly, drawn from Longmans’ back catalog.

A Christmas advertisement for Longmans books, taken from the Times Literary Supplement (November 24, 1932) catches the series near its beginning, with the first 10 books in the series listed.

Jackets are mostly common to the series, as below, and printed on yellow paper. A few unique, illustrated jackets appear in the mid-1930s. The common jackets include the title, author, Swan Library name and colophon, and publisher on the jacket spine. The front of the jacket includes the series name and colophon, title and author. The front jacket flap blurbs the book and includes the price (3/6 net).

G.M. Trevelyan’s The England of Queen Anne is #9 in the series. It consists of chapters 1-4 from Trevelyan’s England Under Queen Anne: Blenheim, published in September 1930. This title was initially printed in the series in March of 1932, and this copy is a second printing, December 1932.

The back of the jacket is blank, and the rear jacket flap lists the first 12 titles in the series. “Made in Great Britain” is printed on the bottom of the back of the jacket.

A complete list of titles in the series, with initial year of publication, is below. The last title issued was in 1938. The last reprint I’ve seen was issued in 1940.

THE SWAN LIBRARY
Small Crown 8vo 3/6 net each
1. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (1931)
2. The Cabala, by Thornton Wilder (1931)
3· Prose of To-Day (1931)
4· The First Mercury Story Book (Part 1) (1931)
5. The First Mercury Story Book (Part 2) (1931)
6. The Adventures Of a Lion Family, by A.A. Pienaar (1931)
7. Clio, A Muse, and Other Essays, by G.M. Trevelyan (1931)
8. The Nightingale (A Life of Chopin), by Marjorie Strachey (1932)
9. The England of Queen Anne (Reprinted From ‘Blenheim’), by G.M. Trevelyan (1932)
10. The Church in The World, by W.R. Inge (1932)
11. Outspoken Essays: First Series, by W.R. Inge (1933)
12. Outspoken Essays: Second Series, by W.R. Inge (1933)
13. A Dream of John Ball and A King’s Lesson, by William Morris (1933)
14. News from Nowhere, Or an Epoch of Rest, by William Morris (1933)
15. A People’s Book of Saints, by John Alexander Bouquet (1933)
16. Some Irish Yesterdays, by E. OE. Somerville & Ross Martin (1933)
17. The Story of My Heart, by Richard Jefferies (1933)
18. Every Man’s Bible: An Anthology, by William Ralph Inge (1934)
19. S.S. San Pedro, by James Gould Cozzens (1934)
20. Mingling of the Races, Being Book one of “History of England,” by George Macaulay Trevelyan (1934)
21. The Long Christmas Dinner: and Other Plays, Thornton Wilder (1934)
22. The Angel that Troubled the Waters: and Other Plays, Thornton Wilder (1934)
23. Wood Magic: A Fable, by Richard Jefferies (1934)
24. Home: A Colonial’s Adventure, by Alan Edward Mulgan (1934)
25. The Woman of Andros, Thornton Wilder (1934)
26. The Bleak Age: Based on “The Age of the Chartists,” by J.L. Hammond & Barbara Bradby Hammond (1934)
27. England Out of Doors, by E.W. Parker & A.R. Moon (1934)
28. Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, by F.W.H. Myers (1935)
29. The Way of a Bee, by Georg Rendl & Patrick Kirwan (1935)
30. Songs of Childhood, by Walter De la Mare (1935)
31. All on the Irish Shore: Irish Sketches, by E.OE. Somerville & Martin Ross
32. National Character, by Arthur Bryant (1935)
33. The England of Charles II, by Arthur Bryant (1936)
34. Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, Vol. 1, by J.W. Mackail (1938)
35. Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, Vol. 2, by J.W. Mackail (1938)

Bining in black cloth with gold typography. The Swan Library colophon is on the book spine and debossed on the front cover.

The endpapers are blank. This copy includes a Rugby School plate that is not filled in. This particular book may have been sold or provided for class work at the school.

The half title page includes the book title and the series name, series number, and series colophon. Facing the half title page is a list of the initial 12 titles in the series.

The Longmans imprint faces the title page. The title page includes the year of publication (1932).

A bibliographical note includes the printing history of this particular title. “Made in Great Britain” is printed at the bottom of the page.